Literatura in cenzura - Društvo za primerjalno književnost - ZRC SAZU

Gašper Troha:Communist and Democratic Censorship in Sloveniaing theatre performances in general. However, this will have to be left forsome other occasion, as we are primarily interested in censorship or selfcensorshipin the arts.One would expect to see the most controversial scenes performedafter almost forty years with a lot of nostalgia, but with no protest whatsoever,because nowadays one can see naked actors on stage in the mainstreamtheatres, and contemporary performers seem to push the limitof the acceptable beyond our wildest imagination – as is the case withperformances by Marina Abramović, Bob Flanagan and Ron Athey, orStelarc. The interesting thing is that the most controversial scenes – thebath and the execution of the hen – were modified in Hrvatin/Janša’sreconstruction.The existing recording of the performance was cut before them, whichgave Hrvatin/Janša the idea of filming the actual bath scene and projectingit on a big screen at the back of the stage while the performers re-enactit with their clothes on and without an actual bath-tub. In this way hepreserved the dialogue between the original and reconstructed versionswhile at the same time side-stepping the possibly offensive scene. In aninterview on 4 June 2007 Janša explained to me that he changed the scenebecause spectators were seeing naked performers in almost every contemporaryproduction and were therefore quite used to it. In other words,today it is more subversive to keep one’s clothes on than to take them off.Although one can easily agree with Janša, the fact remains that the bathtubscene did not stir any controversies in 2006, and we cannot say whether itwould have if it had been staged in the original version.More interesting is the destiny of the final scene – the execution of thehen. Because the Animal Protection Act (“Zakon o zaščiti živali”) forbidsslaughtering an animal outside specially designated areas unless done so bybreeders for their personal use, the performer, and also the organizationthat hosted such a performance, could have been fined SIT 150,000 andup to SIT 10 million, respectively. Today the fine would be even higher– up to €84,000. The ending was thus censored by Nevenka Koprivšek,the director of the Old Power Station, who was not ready to take the risk.In the end it was likely this was the right decision because there were policepresent at the premiere. Instead of the original ending, Hrvatin/Janšadevised four alternative endings, and spectators had to vote for their favourite.The alternatives were:1. A video recording of the reconstruction of the original scene;2. A video recording of a testimony about the execution;3. A reading of the Animal Protection Act;4. An actual execution of a hen.255